Technical Abstract:
Hedychiums (ornamental gingers) belong to the Zingiberaceae family and have showy and fragrant flowers, which are used in leis and perfumery. Hedychium plants are mostly free of major diseases and pests and the essential oils of some species have been found to have insecticidal, antibacterial, and antifungal activities. Most Hedychium sp. thrive in moist, fertile soil and are considered to be shade plants, but will acclimate to full sun if provided adequate moisture. Hedychium plants are commercially available, although no controlled experiments have been conducted to determine ideal cultural requirements for commercial container production. The objective of our experiments was to evaluate hedychium plant growth in response to various fertilizer rates and container substrates. Two substrates (a peat-lite mix and a whole pine tree/peat moss mixture) and three rates of a controlled release fertilizer were used in each experiment. In the first experiment, shoot divisions of a variegated form Hedychium muluense were used, while tissue cultured plantlets of Hedychium coronarium were used in the second experiment. Data analysis has not been completed, although select preliminary results are presented.